Covey describes 8th habit

Dave Murphy

Published
4:00 am PST, Saturday, November 13, 2004

In his long-awaited follow-up to "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey includes an anecdote from Muhammad Yunus, an economics teacher in Bangladesh 25 years ago, who recalled meeting a woman who was basically stuck in poverty over a matter of pennies.

She made bamboo stools, but couldn't afford to pay the equivalent of 20 U. S. cents to buy the bamboo. She had to borrow the money from the bamboo trader, then sell her stools to him at a price he dictated. So the woman ended up earning 2 cents a day.

As Covey explains in "The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness" (Free Press), Yunus took a student around the village and came up with a list of 42 people in that sort of situation.

"When I added up the total amount they needed," Covey quotes Yunus as saying, "I got the biggest shock of my life: It added up to 27 dollars! I felt ashamed of myself for being part of a society which could not provide even 27 dollars to 42 hard-working, skilled human beings."

He loaned them the money, telling them to pay it back whenever they could afford to. Yunus asked bankers for help, but they were all skeptical that the money would be repaid by people who were too poor to offer collateral.

He got every penny back, so he went to other villages and did the same thing, always getting repaid. But the banks still wouldn't do anything to help.

So he started a bank of his own. Covey reports that Grameen Bank now works in thousands of villages in Bangladesh, lending about $500 million a year -- with the average loan being less than $200.

That's an example of what Covey calls the eighth habit: "Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." More than just the generic "follow your passion," he explains how important it is to make sure your work fills a need and helps you leave a legacy.

Covey writes that most of the world's great leaders don't get inspired by one burst of vision, but gradually develop their purpose.

"People sense human need and respond to their conscience in trying to meet that need," he writes. "And when they meet that need, they see another, and meet that, and on and on. Little by little, they begin to generalize this sense of need and start thinking of ways to institutionalize their efforts so they can be sustained."

In an interview, Covey explained that most companies are still using industrial-age models, rather than appreciating how much value their workers' skills add. He said that most workers either don't understand their companies' goals or haven't been told exactly how their jobs help the company achieve those goals.

Some messages aren't clear, Covey said. Companies will say how important teamwork is, but still base pay on individual contributions. They still rely on individual job descriptions rather than looking for people whose skills complement each other's.

And even clear messages can backfire if workers don't have a voice in setting the goals, Covey said. "Without involvement, there is no commitment."

One thing that intrigued me about the book was that Covey includes a DVD with 16 short videos that supplement his lessons. "Many people are visual learners," he explained in the interview. "They have been raised by television rather than by reading."